A Hostage Mother’s Wish
On Thursday, January 30, 2025, while freed hostage Agam Berger was being flown with her parents in a helicopter en route to Rabin Medical Center, she held up a sign on a dry-erase board that read, "I chose a path of faith, and I returned through a path of faith."
Agam was kidnapped on October 7th during the brutal surprise Hamas attack at the Nahal Oz base alongside her friends Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Daniela Gilboa, and Naama Levy. Her friends, who were miraculously released last week, shared that despite enduring 14 months in captivity, Agam remained steadfast in her faith. She consistently observed Shabbat, refrained from eating non-Kosher food despite hunger, recited blessings before meals, and even risked further abuse by refusing to cook for her captors on Shabbat.
Never Give Up
A story is told of the holy Maggid of Mezritch (1704-1772). Once, his young son came running to him in tears. The Maggid comforted him and asked him why he was crying. The child began to explain that he had been playing a game of hide-and-seek with his friends but he hid so well that he was never found.
“So why are you crying, didn't you play really well?", asked the Maggid.
A Lesson from Rachel Goldberg-Polin
During her heart-wrenching and emotional eulogy for her son Hersh on September 2, 2024, Rachel Goldberg-Polin expressed her extraordinary faith so profoundly:
"I have had a lot of time during the past 332 days to think about my sweet boy, my Hersh. And one thing I keep thinking about is how, out of all the mothers in the world, G-d chose to give Hersh to me.
Suprarational
George, an avid fisherman, once set out on a quest to figure out the size of the smallest fish living in the ocean. So he spread out a huge fishing net in the Atlantic Ocean and was amazed to catch fish of all different types, colors and sizes. But surprisingly, out of the tens of thousands of fish that he caught, he did not find any fish smaller than five inches.